Eur J Neurol 2002 May;9(3):287-91
Olindo S, Guillon B, Helias J, Phillibert B, Magne C, Feve JR.
Departments of Neurology, CHU G et R Laennec, Nantes, France, Departments
of Nuclear Medicine, CHU G et R Laennec, Nantes, France.
Recent studies have shown that mitoxantrone is effective in patients with active multiple sclerosis (MS) and that cardiac monitoring is usually required
However, right and left ventricular ejection fractions (VEFs) have never been studied in MS patients as compared with control subjects
Radionuclide angiocardiography (RA) was performed to assess right and left VEFs at rest in 40 consecutive patients with active definite MS [15 men and 25 women; mean age 33.9 +/- 10 years; mean disease duration 8 +/- 6.5 years; 18 had relapsing-remitting and 22 had secondary progressive forms of the disease; mean Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score 4.8 +/- 1.9]
The control group consisted of 40 subjects free of neurological or cardiovascular disease (17 men and 23 women; 44.6 +/- 13.4 years of age)
The VEF values obtained in the control group defined the normal limits (right VEF 32-54%; left VEF 50-74%)
A statistically significant decrease of right (P=0.02) and left (P < 0.0001) VEFs was found in MS patients as compared with control subjects
RA showed pathological results for right (7.5%), left (10%) and both (7.5%) VEFs in 25% of MS patients
No correlation was found between VEF and sex, age, disease duration, disease course, EDSS score or previous treatment
Autonomic impairment, which frequently occurs in MS patients, may have accounted for the decrease in VEFs
Further physiological studies are required to determine factor responsible for the decrease of VEFs in MS.